The paradigm of the modern GUI operating system on computing devices, such as a PC, has remained largely unchanged from the basic framework introduced 20 years ago. That is, the graphical representation of data, functions and references within sorted, layered and clipped regions are projected orthogonally onto 2-dimensional screen space. Similarly, cursor location, dragging, clicking, resizing, layering and scrolling are fixed within the 2-dimensional coordinate plane. Accordingly, when a user ordinarily observes or works in 3-dimensional virtual space executed on a computing device, it is almost ubiquitously in the context of something completely separate from the above functions of the operating system and desktop, and limited within the window of an application, such as a game or 3-dimensional modeling program, with no established interoperability between the 3-dimensional space of such an application and the two-dimensional, screen-aligned elements of the desktop. Three-dimensional file browsers and shells currently exist (for example, win3-dimensional, Microsoft Task Library, Sphere3-dimensional). These prior efforts, however, have sacrificed the simplicity and natural intuitiveness of flat 2-dimensional screen space as well as interoperability with legacy 2-dimensional applications and system elements (Microsoft Task Library, for example, required a special version of Windows 2000 to be built in order to render running applications and desktop windows).
In light of the foregoing, a need in the art exists for methods, apparatuses and systems directed to 3-dimensional imaging and computing applications, such as gaming, computer-assisted modeling, and advertising, with enhanced rendering of three-dimensional objects, and integration with desktop display environments, including 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional display environments.